Ruby Nell Hysaw, 65, retains her independence in her Park Hill home after 22 volunteers from Rebuilding Together Metro Denver made essential repairs. Behind her is Lynda Stecher, who led the group. <!--IPTC: (CM) FE05RMREBUILD_cm02 Lynda Stecher (left) and Ruby Hysaw at Hysaw's Denver home on Friday, January 16, 2009. Stecher lead a group called Rebuilding Together Metro Denver to help fix Hysaw's house last fall. Cyrus McCrimmon/ The Denver Post-->

When her basement ceiling collapsed from years of unresolved water damage, Ruby Nell Hysaw, 65, feared she had lost the battle to maintain her Park Hill two-story.

But just one day spent by volunteers making repairs and modifications has given Hysaw a chance at more years of independence, safety and accessibility in the place she has called home for 40 years.

“Without them, I think the house would have fallen down around me,” says Hysaw, still amazed at the work completed by Rebuilding Together Metro Denver. Twenty-two volunteers patched the basement ceiling, installed front-porch handrails, a new water heater and furnace, and painted kitchen cabinets, among other renovation projects in the home.

On Saturday, another 500 volunteers will fan out in cities across the metro area to help 25 other families stay in their homes too. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Denver’s Rebuilding Together is one of the nation’s largest volunteer-based home-repair organizations, with chapters in 43 states.

Since its inception, the Metro Denver chapter’s volunteers and sponsors have rehabilitated 1,000 homes throughout the city for low-income and disabled seniors — at no cost to these clients. Each year, volunteers complete more than $1 million in repairs and modifications.

Matriarch at risk

This year, homes in Denver, Aurora, Centennial, Commerce City, Lakewood, Sheridan and Westminster will be rehabbed, including the home of Martha Shelton, an 85-year- old widow of a WWII veteran. Shelton has lived in her home for 44 years. In it, she raised six children, two grandchildren and several great- and even great-great-grandchildren. Planned projects include installing handrails on the stairways, grab bars in the bathroom and an ADA-height toilet, among other repairs.

“It’s falling apart, but it’s been home to everyone in our family at one point or another, depending on whatever life circumstance they were dealing with,” says granddaughter Teresa Smith.

Shelton raised Smith and her brother after their mother’s death when they were children. Shelton also helped Smith learn parenting skills when she became a mother at 16. As a struggling single parent, Smith hasn’t been able to care for her grandmother, so she started contacting programs two years ago to get assistance for Shelton.

“That house has had the same carpet in it since it was built,” Smith says. “Grandma still walks up and down those stairs. But I still get nervous every time I call and she doesn’t answer the phone. . . . She doesn’t ask for much unless she absolutely has to. Now is one of those times.”

Donated materials, supplies, labor and appliances from companies including Lowe’s, Wells Fargo and organizations such as the Colorado Roofing Association, the Association for Civil Engineers and Energy Outreach Colorado help put $10,000 to $20,000 in repairs into each home.

“For every dollar spent, we can leverage about $3 of services, materials and labor for that project,” says Laurie McCaw, Rebuilding Together’s CEO. That can transform a $5,000 sponsorship into nearly $12,000 in renovations to a home, she says.

The majority of elderly homeowners the organization works with — like Hysaw — have lived in their homes for more than 25 years. One homeowner was even born in her home, which had been in her family for a century.

For many of the people Rebuilding Together helps, chronic illnesses and fixed incomes have left them unable to cover home maintenance costs. Many of them also live in homes 60 or more years old that are showing decades of deterioration, McCaw says.

When Hysaw bought her home in Park Hill in 1969, it was beautiful and well cared for. It was only 15 years old at the time. She worked in a meat factory and raised one daughter in the home.

She kept up the three-bedroom, 1 1/2-bath house until arthritis crippled her. Now, Hy- saw lives on $949 a month in Social Security benefits and has been raising her two grandchildren, ages 8 and 19, since their mother passed away in 2006.

When Rebuilding Together got involved, doors were falling off hinges, paint was peeling, and the landscaping was overrun. “By the time you pay your bills, you don’t have nothing left to fix up the house with,” says Hysaw, who wrote the organization and asked for help.

Vulnerable seniors

Older Americans have been particularly susceptible to the recent credit-market collapse. Many of them refinanced into adjustable-rate mortgages to make home repairs and then couldn’t afford the rate increases, according to McCaw. Others have been unable to sell their homes and cannot afford to live in retirement communities.

Helping people stay in their homes for as long as possible preserves affordable housing and stabilizes communities already reeling from foreclosures, McCaw says.

“It is much cheaper to keep people in their homes, and by and large everyone wants to age in place,” she added. “Our goal is to get the repairs they need done so that they are safe and . . . refer them to other services so they don’t lose their home(s).”

During National Rebuilding Days in April and October, the Denver chapter of Rebuilding Together takes on about 70 homes. Projects include new roofs, windows, doors and appliances. Special care is paid to renovations that prevent falls and ease mobility. Ramps and grab bars are installed, and porches, stairs and bathrooms are modified and upgraded.

One homeowner in desperate need of a bathroom upgrade hadn’t taken a bath in a year because she couldn’t get into her tub. Another who needed grab bars installed hadn’t been out of his home in two years except when his son carried him to the car for doctor appointments.

At Hysaw’s house, volunteers arrived at 7:30 a.m. and didn’t put their hammers down until 5:30 p.m. Some of the them returned on a second day to finish. Volunteer coordinator Lynda Stecher said the group filled a 35-foot Dumpster with trash and debris pulled from Hysaw’s basement and backyard.

The work included new faucets in the bathroom, a new dryer vent, interior painting, a new storm door, a fire extinguisher, and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. An electrician also changed out lights and updated the wiring.

“Parents and grandparents like Ruby spend their whole lives taking care of family and everybody else but themselves,” Stecher says. “This is a great opportunity for somebody else to help take care of them when they can’t do it themselves.”

Every time Hysaw tried to pick up a hammer or do some painting, someone quickly stopped her or tried to shoo her out of the house.

“I believe God sent those people here to me,” she says, “and I was thankful for what they did do.”

Recent milestones In 2008: Thirty-eight homes were finished on April Rebuilding Day; the organization partnered with HGTV’s “Change the World, Start at Home” program to complete three renovations in the Curtis Park neighborhood; 32 volunteers went to New Orleans to participate in the third annual Rebuild 1000 project; and 15 houses were finished on the October Rebuilding Day.

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